A guided walk around New Norcia

Now and again, you arrive at a place steeped in stories. Stories embedded in the brickwork, like an extra layer of mortar; whirling around doorways, whispering through windows. New Norcia is such a place. Founded in 1847 by Spanish Benedictine monks, this cluster of beautiful buildings on the banks of the Moore River is alive with stories not just of the monastery and its community, but also of the hard early days of the Swan River Colony, of the lives of the Noongar Yued people who have called this area home for tens of thousands of years, and of the orphans and students who have lived and learned here. We arrived at New Norcia on a bright morning to find ourselves the only people booked for a guided walking tour, which was a surprise. While you can wander without a guide, the two-hour tour includes access behind otherwise locked doors, allowing you to visit the Abbey Church and the gloriously decorated interiors of the old boarding school chapels. We had some time before the tour started so we ducked into the museum, housed in what used to be St Joseph’s School for Girls.

PIONEERING DAYS

The exhibits are underwhelming at first glance — 19th century blacksmiths’ tools and farm equipment, embroidered vestments and vintage photographs — but the stories behind them are fascinating.

An 1850 map on the wall shows the area around Herdsman Lake. Surrounding land is owned by people whose names are familiar to generations of Western Australians: Trigg and Roe, Leeder and Monger.

Several exhibits relate to Yued man William Monop, who ‘came in from the bush’ in 1864. The ultimate jack-of-all-trades, Monop was a shearer, a crop farmer, a carpenter, a horse-breaker, a skilled artist, and part of the local cricket team. He also took young men from the mission back to the bush for ceremonial activities; later that day, I come face-to-face with a fierce-looking Monop in ceremonial dress courtesy of a photo taken when he was in his 60s.

When Spanish monks Rosendo Salvado and Jose Serra established New Norcia, they aimed to work with the Yued people to build a Christian, largely self-sufficient agricultural-based community. Families lived in cottages and worked their own plots of land; young men were paid to work on the monastery farm or trade shops; women did domestic work. Under Abbot Salvado, the community grew to around 250 people and became one of the most important in the Swan River Colony, eventually expanding to include residential schools.

While converting the locals to Christianity was obviously the key preoccupation, Salvado’s respect for Yued culture was unusual for his time. He learned the Yued language, incorporated elements of their culture into mission living, and advocated for Aboriginal people with the government of the day.

ANGELS AND A BUSH NATIVITY

Soon, it’s time to meet our guide and head off on tour: first stop, the monastery, currently home to nine monks. We pause to admire the elaborate plasterwork surrounding the iron gates, crowned by New Norcia’s coat-of-arms.

Visitors are welcome to join the monks in prayer or at mass, but we leave them to their contemplation and head to the Abbey Church, which houses the marble tomb of Salvado. Built between 1855 and 1860, the church is a fine example of bush architecture — mud plaster, rough-cut timber, wooden shingles — refined by a later Mediterranean-style face lift. There’s a German Moser organ, shipped to Australia in the 1920s, and other signs of a melding of European tradition and Aussie life: look out for the Holy Family in a bush setting, complete with curious kookaburra and kangaroo looking over baby Jesus.

From here, we visit the historic flour mill (New Norcia’s bakery is renowned for its nut cake) before exploring the old boarding schools, now used for accommodation and events.

St Gertrude’s, opened in 1908 as a girls’ convent school, is a stunning Gothic revival building with a glorious golden-arched chapel decorated with trumpet-tooting angels.

The former boys’ school, St Ildephonsus’ College, is equally impressive. Opened in 1913, the college features a distinctive gingerbread exterior, Byzantine flourishes, and a richly decorated chapel. It was the detail that impressed me the most: the intricate curves of leaves and flowers on the patterned ceiling, the light-as-air colour scheme of peach and sky blue.

The colleges became co-educational in the 1970s and were known jointly as Salvado College and then New Norcia Catholic College, before closing for good in 1991.

WA’S LIVING HISTORY We end the tour at the education centre, which includes panels depicting the six Noongar seasons. There’s also an interpretative room about the European Space Agency’s deep space ground station, about 10km away — the station is currently developing visitor facilities to explain its work communicating with spacecraft. It’s a perfect end to the tour, juxtaposing the ancient and the modern.

New Norcia intertwines multiple narratives. Some are dark and indescribably painful: a quick online search provides a ream of information about historic abuse at its institutions. It’s not the scope of this article to go further into this, but I had the impression that the community is still struggling to figure out how to tell these stories sensitively within the context of a visitor attraction. It would also be good to read or hear the Yued people’s stories in their own words.

Ultimately, New Norcia is part of the living history of all West Australians. Its stories are our stories, its challenges and triumphs part of our cultural inheritance. The story continues with us into the 21st century.

+ Dawn Gibson-Fawcett is a travel writer and former West Australian journalist who lives in Cairo and was revisiting WA.

VISITING NEW NORCIA

Getting there New Norcia is 132km north of Perth, about a 90-minute drive. It’s a perfect daytrip or scenic stop on a longer road trip.

Tours Guided walking tours run daily and last around two hours. Book ahead via the New Norcia website (newnorcia.com.au) or at the visitor centre on arrival.

Food & stay There’s a roadhouse cafe for snacks and meals. Accommodation options include the historic hostel, powered sites and a designated area for self-contained caravans.

Check ahead New Norcia hosts regular events, such as an Abbot’s Table dining experience, musical recitals and retreats. newnorcia.com.au/whats-on/events-calendar/current-events

Don’t miss The historic colleges — worth the tour on their own. And don’t forget to take home some of the famed nut cake and award-winning olive oil.